Custom Home

Custom Home Design Services

Designing a new custom home is a uniquely personal experience. Working with a diverse clientele for over seventy years, we’ve learned that the first and most important step is to listen to our client’s desires and to gather the information necessary to create a home design based upon their lifestyle and comfort.

Each custom home is unique; however, there is a method to our madness whether we are designing a quaint bungalow or a palatial palace. Our Custom Home process follows an insightful journey to discover the feel and function of your special home.

Your landscape is our canvas.

If possible, we prefer to meet at the site where your new home will be constructed. Our designer will assess the lay of the land and seasonal exposures to enhance each room’s view and as we gather information for the floor plan: the number of rooms, square footage, special amenities and other objectives.

What are the steps of the custom home design process?

The McCullough custom home design process was developed to alleviate the anxiety and the financial unknowns of building a home from the ground floor. The process is an insightful, organized, thought-provoking, step-by-step progression of financial and emotional comfort levels.

There are three phases to the Custom Home design process:

Phase One: Establish Objectives

Phase Two: Conceptual Sketch

Phase Three: Construction Drawings

PHASE ONE: Establishing Objectives - Laying the Foundation

In our PHASE ONE initial meeting together, we listen. It’s important for you to do your “homework” prior to our initial meeting by filling out the Project Packet.

Your McCullough designer will discuss your completed checklist provided in the Custom Home project packet. Most clients also come prepared with pictures torn from magazines, online pin boards, and photos of exterior home facades and interior room designs. Our extensive McCullough Design Library is also a resource for inspiration.

Your McCullough designer will take detailed notes as you describe your objectives. We will summarize these objectives in a letter for your review and approval. PHASE ONE is the most important step of the home design process - it lays the foundation for constructing the home you imagine. The fee for this phase is listed in the Project Packet.

Square Footage Estimator

H.G. McCullough’s proprietary Square Footage Estimator program gives our clients and your contractor the size and price per square foot of a structure before making the first drawings. The accuracy of our program is very successful in eliminating re-draws and revisions and in developing budget estimates.

The Square Footage Estimator is a comfort level checkpoint for financial planning.

PHASE TWO: Conceptual Sketch – Your Vision Comes Alive

In PHASE TWO, you will be presented with a conceptual sketch which is the first draft of your custom home design based upon the objectives discussed in the initial meeting. The concept drawing includes a floor plan and an artistic rendering of the head-on, (front view), of your home, typically called an “elevation”.

Sketches are hand-drawn, pencil renderings that help you visualize the style and design layout. Many times these are provided at the initial meeting and then refined later.

The conceptual sketch is another comfort level checkpoint for financial planning and budgeting.

The conceptual sketch is a work-in-progress and may be modified several times until we receive your approval. The sketch may be used for gathering preliminary cost estimates from builders and to secure financing. The fee for this phase is listed in the Project Packet.

PHASE THREE: Construction Drawings – Preparing to build

The conceptual sketch is then transformed into the construction drawings, the “nuts and bolts” plan for the building or remodeling of your home. Construction drawings include the detailed floor plans, foundation plan, framing sections, and roof plan and elevation requirements. These drawings are an important part of the contract documents between you and your contractor. The fee for this phase is listed in the Project Packet.